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Bird Notes and News 



The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. 



ANNUAL MEETING. . 



The 24th Annual Meeting of the Society 

 was held on March 11th, 1915, in the 

 Council Chamber, Middlesex Guildhall, 

 Westminster, S.W., by kind permission 

 of the Chairman of the Middlesex County 

 Council. The Ranee of Sarawak presided, 

 supported by Mr. Montagu Sharpe (Chair- 

 man), Mr. Meade-Waldo, Mr. Ogilvie- 

 Grant, Mr. W. H. Hudson, Dr. Drewitt, 

 Captain Tailby, Mr. J. R. B. Masefield, Mr. 



F. E. Lemon (Hon. Secretary), Mrs. Lemon, 

 Miss Hall, Miss Clifton, Miss Pollock and 

 Miss E. L. Turner, members of the 

 Council of the R.S.P.B. ; and among 

 those also present were Lady Glenconner, 

 Lady Colebrooke, the Countess della 

 Rochetta, Mrs. Close, Mrs. Desborough 

 Walford, Mrs. Tailby, Miss D. R. George, 

 the Misses Good, Miss Byas, Miss E. H. 

 Melvill, Mrs. Court Treatt, Miss Winifred 

 Austen, Miss I. M. French, Mrs. Wynnard 

 Hooper, Miss Thruston, Mrs. Burdon, 

 Miss Mace, Mr. and Mrs. A. H. H. 

 Matthews, the Hon. T. Mackenzie, Mr. 



G. E. Lodge, Mr. Cosmo Blore, Mr. A. 

 Craig, Mr. J. Allen Tregelles, Mr. Leeds 

 Smith, Mr. F. C. H. Borrett, Mr. Raymond 

 de Jersey, Mr. F. A. Walker, Mr. Frank 

 Wood, Mr. H. V. Masefield, and many 

 others. 



Letters regretting inability to attend 

 were received from the President, the 

 Duchess of Portland, who was unable 

 to be in town ; Sir Henry Newbolt, 

 Sir John Cockburn, the Hon. Mrs. Drewitt, 

 Mr. H. E. Dresser, Mr. W. H. St. Quintin, 

 Mr. Hastings Lees, Mr. Staveley Hill, 

 M.P., Mr. John Galsworthy, Mr. Ernest 

 Thompson Seton, Lady Heneage, Lady 

 Hoare, Lady Jenkyns, Lady Malcolm of 

 Poltalloch, Canon Vaughan, the Hon. 



F. S. O'Grady, Mr. Beville Stanier, M.P., 

 Colonel Wardlaw Ramsay, President of 

 the B.O.U., and others. 



The Ranee, in opening the proceedings, 

 remarked that they met under the shadow 

 of a heavy disappointment, in the failure 

 of the Government to pass the Plumage 

 Bill ; and spoke strongly and earnestly 

 of the need for continued protest against 

 the feather-trade and the folly of vain 

 and silly women who carried the trophies 

 of callousness and cruelty on their heads. 

 Later, Her Highness moved the re- 

 election of the Duchess of Portland as 

 President ; and Lady Glenconner, in 

 seconding, dealt with the " feathered 

 woman " in a witty speech ; while the 

 Hon. Thomas Mackenzie, in moving the 

 election of the Council, deeply regretted 

 the action of the Parliamentary Com- 

 mittee on the Bill in allowing time to be 

 squandered and opportunity lost in the 

 futile discussion of innumerable motions 

 and amendments. 



The adoption of the Report and 

 Accounts was moved bj^ Mr. Sharpe, who 

 gave a brief resume of the work and of 

 the finances of the Society, pointing 

 out that, like the British nation and its 

 Allies, it too was engaged in a war for 

 life and liberty — the life and liberty 

 of wild birds. So far as regarded the 

 Plume-trade, its enemies were to a 

 great extent Germans, who both in this 

 country and in the United States, were 

 at the back of the traffic in wild birds' 

 plumage. 



The work of the Watchers Committee 

 was dealt with in an interesting manner 

 by Mr. Ogilvie-Grant, Mr. Meade-Waldo, 

 and Dr. Drewitt ; and Mr. Masefield 

 gave some results of the experiments in 



